**Sorry this got so long, I've been updating it as I spend more time playing with the board on 3 new PCs. If you want just the most important info, skip to the warnings and updates.
I've had this motherboard in a new build for a few weeks now, and have seen enough to write a preliminary review. This is my third PC build, and I do a good bit of troubleshooting on our work PCs. I would say I'm an experienced geek, but far from an IT professional. I had to wait a few months for the recall and then supply issues (japan quake) to work themselves out, but eventually the board arrived.
Initial thoughts:
The board is well packaged, and comes with more than enough SATA cables for a complete build. One thing I love about intel boards is that each header on the board is clearly labeled as to what it is (USB, Rear fan, Power LED, etc). Very nice whether you are a first-time builder or have some experience. This board has a ton of features--way more than I will ever use. The skull alone is enough to tell you that this isn't your typical bare-bones (no pun intended) Intel motherboard. The new i5 processors are fantastic for the price.
My setup:
My rig is basically for going online, storing family photos and videos, doing some editing, occasional 3D CAD, etc. Not using it for gaming or anything intensive, but I want it to be fast and hold up for several years. I re-used my old case (Cooler Master Centurion 5), Power supply (550W I think), old NVidia Graphics card, media reader etc. Old EIDE optical drives need not apply--no longer supported without a card that costs as much as a new SATA DVD burner.
WARNING: If you are using an older power supply, this board requires an 8-pin 12V power connection (EPS) for the processor. Older PSU's only have 4-pin (ATX). You need to get an adapter (or new PSU) to make it work. The adapter worked fine in my rig, but it delayed my build by 2 more days. NO ONE had one locally. I called 30 places/technicians...even the giant local electronics warehouse didn't have it.
StarTech 6in 4 Pin to 8 Pin EPS Power Adapter with LP4 - F/M (EPS48ADAP)
Installation:
Intel boards come with graphical instructions (lots of pictures, few words) combined with good online documentation. This makes them suitable for first-time builders, and also saves us from the inevitable 'lost in translation' garbage that comes in many manuals. The included documentation was minimal, supplemented with all-you-need-to-know online. The only unclear part for me was regarding the bluetooth/wireless-n doodad. It turns out you plug it into any of the USB headers. Would have been nice if it was labeled or explained, but that is the only place it fits. Wireless-n worked upon first startup, but was slow as molasses despite being 20 feet from the N router. So don't count on it as a permanent solution. I installed my old wireless card and now get a full signal anywhere in the house.
Other Thoughts:
Very decent Bios, including some overclocking options and goodies (skull backlighting on/off) as well as the standard stuff. In order to get your RAM to operate at 1600MHz, you will have to change the setting in the Bios or the tuning utility. Windows 7 Pro 64-bit installed easily, as did all of the drivers. I first installed from the included DVD, then got the latest driver updates from the intel website and updated everything. You would probably be fine just getting the latest from the website. ***WARNING***If you want your eSATA port to work, install the Marvell RAID drivers first!! And I have confirmed that you can easily use all of the latest drivers from the web instead of the DVD.
At first, my Windows Experience Index would run for several minutes and fail, but eventually it worked (NVidia update?). It's running 7.7-7.8 (out of 7.9!) for my i5-2500k and 4GB RAM. 6.6 for my old graphics card, and 5.5 for my SATA3(6GB/s) HDD. Not too shabby, though I would love a SSD to get the data speed up to par.
The included tuning and monitoring utilities are excellent. I don't plan on doing any overclocking, but I would be comfortable given the provided utility. It offers full graphical monitoring of dozens of parameters, a good user interface, and built-in customizable stress tests. The utility highlights any new or non-factory settings, making it easy to prevent accidental mistakes. I confirmed that my RAM was operating at 1600 MHz and ran some stress tests for kicks. The board has excellent fan control and kept the system quiet even under stress.
WARNING: Intel sneaked a free (featureless) version of ESET antivirus package onto the driver disc. Not expecting any bloatware, I did a full install. Since the package did not uninstall completely, I had to remove parts of it manually which I don't like doing. However, it has not caused any problems to date. I'm currently running Ad-Aware free and have Ad-Aware Pro in the mail.
Bottom Line:
If your goal is to out-clock all of your friends, or you need 18 Sata ports and whatever else the competitors are putting on their boards, this motherboard may not be for you. But if you want a well-built, reliable, hassle free board built by the chipmaker then stick with Intel. The BG should not disappoint.
Final Thoughts:
I can't think of much else to write about this board, but feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to help. It has definitely not given me any major problems (unlike my friend's ASUS!). I will continue to buy Intel boards in the future, and I almost have my boss convinced to let me build a P67BG workstation! (not another Dell please!!) Thanks for reading.
***UPDATE***
Well I'm typing this on my new work PC, which was built over the weekend. The build went smoothly, as expected. I haven't had a chance to really tax it with rendering, but I can tell you that this board combined with the 2600K chip is blazing fast. At some point when I need some more speed I'll get a cooler and crank up the clock speed. If only I had an SSD I would be set...the hard drive is obviously the limiting factor here! Still a highly recommended board. In fact, it went so well that my boss is going to building a similar PC for his home. He was obviously impressed!
***UPDATE***
Rendering on this machine is fantastic (AutoCAD). Not only can I select resolutions that resulted in crashes on my old Core2 PC, I can max out the resolution, double the output PDF paper size, and still have a result in under 5 minutes. No more twiddling my thumbs for half an hour waiting for renders...The highest core temp I've seen to date is 80 degrees C. High enough where I won't be overclocking it without putting in an aftermarket cooler...looking at
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler, RR-B10-212P-G1
. The built in hardware monitor warns you if your core temp gets above 87C. This is listed as the 'all on' temperature (turns all fans on max speed)
My eSATA port doesn't seem to work with an the
Thermaltake BlacX eSATA USB Docking Station
. I'm going to test it at home to see if my work board has a dead port or if it is some kind of compatibility issue with the BlacX. will update with results. ***UPDATE*** The Marvell eSATA controller apparently has some issues, and I can't get my eSATA port to work. Seems to be very common, even with other board manufacturers. Though I could try a few things to get the Marvell to work, I'm not going to bother with it since people seem to have various problems with it's use affecting other PC operations. At work we use eSATA for backups, so we have a few SATA to eSATA cables lying around. That is a good enough solution for me, but if you need all 6 SATA ports plus eSATA then it won't work for you. ****UPDATE*** We've figured out a way to get the Marvell controller working on one of the 3 PC's. It seems to have something to do with the order that you install drivers after your first windows startup. **Install the Marvell eSATA driver FIRST!** This worked on my boss' PC. I have tried everything I can think of to get it to work on my PC and despite a few glimmers of hope it still doesn't recognize an eSATA drive.
My boss just got in his components for an identical build at the house...it's always fun when you can convince someone to build their own PC (or convince your boss to do *anything*). It's not as difficult as people think, (not that you can't screw something up if you get in over your head...). With most components having a 3-year warranty, there aren't any compelling reasons not to build your own.
One last thought. The 'turbo boost' that intel is touting on their new chips isn't all it's cracked up to be. The max advertised speed is only achieved when only one core is active (due to heat dissipation I'm sure). Though I have run into a few older programs that only use 1 core, most processor-intensive software utilizes multiple threads/cores. With 4 cores active, the clock speed is only boosted by 0.1GHz by default. Of course you can tune this in the overclocking utility, but probably not wise without a cooler. These things are still blazing fast, don't get me wrong. On my work PC I plan on experimenting with overclocking once I can talk 'the man' into buying me a cooler. I'll post relevant info in the comments. Enjoy!
***OVERCLOCKING UPDATE***
I've got the PC running stable at 4.7GHz with only a $30 air cooler!! That is a 34% increase over stock speed for the 2600k!
Cooler Master RR-B10-212P-G1 Hyper 212 Plus 775/1156/1366/AMD/AM2/AM3 Universal Direct Contact Heat-Pipe 120mm Fan CPU Cooler
. Also got the extra fan. My max processor temperature was ~80C with stock configuration, and it's running cooler than that with the cooler and the higher speed. Tried for 4.8 but it crashed =)
***Reliability update***
As of 3/28/12 all 3 PC's are still running strong, with no issues (except mentioned above). This includes my home PC, work PC (OC'd to 4.7) and my boss' home PC. Still highly recommended, especially at the current price!
***Reliability update 2***
Well it is now September of 2013. Absolutely no problems with the boards. I put my work PC through a lot (running dozens of programs at once, adding and removing drives, rendering high-detail CAD models with 100% processor for half-hour at a time, etc), and even after all of this time it still seems like a blazing fast PC. I upgraded to a 240GB SSD and that was a massive performance boost. It really makes my home PC seem aggravatingly slow. The best news is that Intel has (recently) released chips that still use the LGA1155 socket. I am happy to say that this board is not yet obsolete. =)
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